Canadian Charolais Youth Association News

CANADIAN CHAROLAIS YOUTH ASSOCIATION NEWS 2013 CCYA Conference Wrap Up

Courtney Black, Director

This summer youth from all over the country gathered for the 2013 annual Canadian Charolais Youth Association summer conference in Shelburne, Ontario. Throughout the week, amazing friendships and memories were made by all!

The 2013 conference planning committee was made up of Holly Smith, Randi Aldcorn, Courtney Black, Emily Bromley, and Adult Advisor Billie‐Jo Saunders. Along with the planning committee, special thanks go out to this year’s nominees for the Honoree award: Brad Buchannan and Chester Tupling.

The week started with a fairly new activity, an educational quiz all about Charolais cattle that was constructed by Mel Reekie. The quiz lasted about half an hour and everyone put a lot more thought into the everyday things involved in the Charolais industry!

After the chores were done, the first day was ended with the annual mixer, run by the National Board which consisted of Kirstin Sparrow, Sarah Weinbender, Michael Hunter, Courtney Black, Holly Smith, Tomina Jackson, and Travis Jozwiak. This year the mixer involved mixing a cake on a national board member’s head, egg tosses, whip‐cream, water, maple syrup, flour and of course lots of paint! This activity is one that gets all the youth involved in making new friends from different age categories from all over the country! In the end, every youth member had a ton of fun and knew they belonged with the amazing group of people that attend the CCYA conferences!

The following day included individual judging, team marketing, team selling, and keep and cull. This year there were lots of great animals, along with parent volunteers that helped out with individual judging in the morning. After lunch, everyone either participated in team judging or team selling. Along with many great judges, everybody’s creativity shone through when it came to team selling. Later that day, everyone went to Chester Tupling’s farm for the Keep and Cull dinner. Amazing food was had, as well as a super informative night, as all the youth were further informed about traits to look for when keeping and culling Charolais cattle along with general information about the breed itself! It was a great evening for everyone!

Day three started off with showmanship where the youth were divided up into splits within their age groups, followed by the showmanship finals. The judge was Ryan Hurley who was great at giving each and every member, positive and constructive feedback, which is always appreciated by the youth. There are always really great showmen of all ages, which make for a really impressive show to watch! After showmanship, R&K gave an incredible fitting demonstration to better prepare the youth for their team grooming later that afternoon. Along with their great demonstration, R&K Show Supplies was around all week to lend a hand to any youth member, whether it was what product to use, or general fitting questions, they were always more than willing to help. After lunch, team grooming started, along with individual marketing.

Saturday was the last day of the conference, and as all youth could probably agree, the week flew by once again! Saturday morning there were the team grooming finals, followed by the Annual General Meeting. After lunch the closing ceremonies happened, where every province is represented by its flag, as well as some members carrying the Canadian and the CCYA flag. All parents and visitors are invited to this event and often love watching all the youth parade into the ring proud to be representing the youth of such a great breed. Conformation started shortly after the closing ceremony. This year there were a great variety of animals exhibited by the youth, judged by Pete Fritjers. Once the show was over, the youth did their last set of chores together, which is a great way of learning responsibility and teamwork! The Herdsman award is presented to the herdsman group that worked the best together, kept their stalls tidy and really showed the meaning of a team. After a wonderful afternoon showing off their cattle, the youth had an even more amazing night at the banquet and awards ceremony! The caterers made one last delicious meal for everyone and the awards were presented. Billie‐Jo Saunders was awarded the Honoree award for all her hard work and dedication towards the 2013 conference. The 2013 planning committee was incredibly thankful for everything she did as the Ontario Adult Advisor. When presentations were completed, the DJ took over and the dance started. It was a night filled with great music, great food, and great friends. Details about next year’s conference were explained and many of the members could hardly contain their excitement for next summer! The Canadian Charolais Youth Association national conferences are truly incredible experiences and are a summer must‐do!

CCYA National Board charolaisyouth@gmail.com

President: Kirstin Sparrow kp.sparrow@hotmail.com Vice-President: Sarah Weinbender sarah.weinbender@gmail.com Treasurer: Courtney Black blackbern@hotmail.com Secretary: Tomina Jackson tomi_j_@hotmail.com Director: Luke Marshall futureal@telusplanet.net Director: Megan McLeod rodmcl@telus.net Director: Holly Smith holly27smith@gmail.com Director: Courtney Black blackbern@hotmail.com Director: Shae-Lynn Evans lpevans@sasktel.net

CCYA Provincial Advisors

SK: Darwin Rosso Rosso.c@sasktel.net ON: Billie-Jo Saunders dbjsaunders@gmail.com MB: Donna Jackson Jackson7@mymts.net AB: Kasey Phillips kphillips@mcsnet.ca Youth Coordinator: Brandon Sparrow b.sparrow265@gmail.com, 306-291-6968